During the production of semiconductor devices, a plurality of integrated circuits are produced simultaneously on a semiconductor wafer by means of photolithographic and other processes. After the processing of the wafer, the integrated circuits are separated from one another by sawing. The separated integrated circuits are referred to as semiconductor chips.
During the sawing process, cracks can arise in the semiconductor zones of the semiconductor chip. Protection devices for protecting circuits from these cracks are known. In such devices, a current is run through a resistor. The resistor is a diffusion resistor designed in such a way that it encloses a circuit to be protected. If a crack arises in a relevant semiconductor zone, the resistance of the resistor increases such that the voltage drop across the resistor also increases. This change in voltage drop is sensed, and in response the circuit is switched off.
A problem with these types of protection devices is that they consume a relatively large amount of power, due to the current that passes through the diffusion resistor.